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tv   Inside Story 2018 Ep 201  Al Jazeera  July 21, 2018 3:32am-4:01am +03

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with him about payments to an ex playboy model who claims to have an affair with the u.s. president cohen is being investigated for tax fraud and campaign law violations ahead of trump's twenty sixteen election his current lawyer rudy giuliani confirmed the discussions but he says payments were never made south korea's former president will be spending at least thirty years in prison park geun hayes being given an additional eighty a sentence for embezzling almost three million dollars of state funds and interfering in the choosing of election candidates you are right up to date with all our top stories the news continues after inside story i'm back with a summary in about thirty minutes see them.
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and government leaders and withstand the heat in iraq it's another summer of distant towns as violent protests in the south spread north all the way to the capital about what's fueling the anger this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. security has been tightened in baghdad and southern iraq because more on to government protests are expected several iraqis have already been killed protesting against frequent electricity cuts clean water shortages and lack of job opportunities security forces firing tear gas and water cannon struggle to quell the anger. the latest protests first began in the southern
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city of basra where roads leading to the seaports on the oil fields were blocked and the offices of political parties torched their rest soon spread north to nasiriyah another then diyala province and the capital despite the deployment of extra security personnel. and has more from the capital. a number of key religious political and military leaders have thrown their support behind the protest movement hadiya lamarre who is one of the leaders of the shia militias the popular mobilization forces has said the protesters demands must be respected. whose political bloc won big in the may twelfth elections has also weighed in saying that no government should be formed until the protesters demands are met now it's easy for those leaders to be able to throw their support behind the protest movement because they draw
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a lot of support from the south where the protest movement is based so they're playing effectively to the gallery that however the government is listening it's understanding that it does need to address these demands from the protesters in the last few days they've sent a high level energy delegation to saudi arabia to negotiate with saudi arabia's trying to electricity into the south this whole crisis was sparked when iran stopped supplying electricity to the south because it was owed a billion and a half dollars in unpaid bill pay bills are now saudi arabia is a regional rival and has long been concerned about iran's role in iraq so they are likely to use this to try and gain some political leverage here in iraq the protesters of issued fourteen demands of the government and they're giving the government some time to be able to address those fourteen demands and come up with some short term solutions so although we may well see a way out of this crisis. it will be short term unless there is some very long term
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thinking that goes on and addresses the root causes of what the protesters moans are remember it's effectively just two things energy supply into the self and economic reforms and an end to corruption and jobs for local people imran khan out zero for inside story in baghdad iraq has major economic problems despite having the world's fifth largest oil reserves foreign companies dominate the oil industry the government promised to restore economic stability after last year's defeat of weisel but many blame the government for corruption and not doing enough to prevent the disappearance of billions of dollars much of iraq's electricity supply especially in southern pass comes from iran but after suffering power shortages of their own iran reduced iraq's supply causing frequent power blackouts and outage in iraqi homes let's bring in our panel embed done the senior foreign policy
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adviser for the speaker of the iraqi parliament in cambridge where not months or a fellow in the middle east and north africa program of the british based think tank chatham house and into her on hamad more so we have professor of political science at howard university welcome to you all. some of discontent over electricity shortages this is not something new in iraq i mean what's particular about this time well this time is different previously. there were so many demonstration previous years talking about. lists mainly about services electricity water and employment and so on at the same time there were some sort of solutions that the government actually made previously which is not actually. looks like actually it's not a it's not capable of solve the whole problems now we have
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a new think in this demonstration is that not all the people blaming the government but also people blaming the political parties that are responsible to make the government why are participated in the elections has m.p.'s inside the parliament now this let's say this new thing just to understand how much the people actually get get fed from from all those processes from all the political process is that starting from the let's say for about fourteen years the problem is that we don't have until now a real reform inside the popular political process that it will manage iraq crisis yes we die we defeated the r.h. we made a victory against that's because all the iraqi people sunni shia and kurds convinced convinced that the our first enemy is dutch but now the problem is that what with the boycott that happened in the elections which means that people actually get fed
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from the political process ok will not engage with any elections and the more and the same time they are looking for a good services to push them to what the real political process that is supposed to be happen before we get into the domestic politics. we're talking about people grappling with how to. gets electricity on a daily basis in what is supposed to be one of the richest nations on earth they generate something like two hundred sixty million dollars every day from oil was a problem here this is the sort of the sad irony of it particularly in a city and province like where you know iraqis from basra is from the area know that they're sitting on most of the wealth and they can see the international companies coming they can see how much their leaders their own leaders doesn't mean if the shia are sunni or kurd there are other all of the leaders have become very wealthy and very powerful in this trade that has never trickled down to the people
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so the fault line is becoming the gap between the sort of the elite and the citizens and the citizens are asking why is it that we sit on so much wealth and we don't have basic services and this is a call that's been happening for some time now i mean since the summer of two thousand and fifteen this movement has continued and it's growing stronger and stronger and it's not interested in the changes or you know symbolic changes in the other ships what it's interested in is systemic reform they want to change the system that was built fifteen years ago how iran has been providing electricity for areas like bust him particularly this time they decided. to cut of the electricity is it because the iraqis are not paying the bills is it because iran is facing its own problems or is it politically motivated. right now iran is actually experiencing a very extreme energy shortage elektra's city shortly so the reason iran has cut of that power supply has been because of its own domestic problems we have to remember
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that from iran's perspective instability in iraq is actually very bad for iran first avoid can spread to iran southern provinces and also the political parties that have been running iraq in the past few years have been very close to iran so the instability is definitely bad for iran never that that's i think if the summer is over then you're on will be able to again provide a tricity to iraq's southern province. we're talking about bust the. focal point of the protest movement where which accounts for about eighty percent of iraq's oil exports but people are saying we are poor we're discriminated against. who should get this messes into account is that the political establishment who in particular well it has three levels has it has the domestic level of let's say the local level which busts are actually suffering from is that
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there is a huge conflict between the political parties there in bus and also let us not forget corruption was one of the suffered from the highest the highest corruption in iraq so you can imagine how much people actually seeing not only the oil battle but but also the support that that's already has so many. so many work for the political parties and there is no real jobs. to the to the bus or people the second level is actually the political level or let's say the central let a political level which means that even the central government which is made by the political parties did then to manage not only to fight corruption but also they didn't manage to have the real services to be implanted to the to the civilians at the same time where the government saying that we made so many projects we made so many infrastructure projects we paid
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a huge amount of money about that the third level is actually the regional level which means that we're talking about iran we're talking about saudi arabia ok also we are talking about the united states and so on. i mean it's very simple if your country faces power shortages of power crisis basically two options let's take iraq as a case they have on the can use that to generate electricity or they can harness the power of the sun they have two options it's easy and they have cash the can tap into those resources and solve the problem why is this becoming something over an endemic case in iraq. to put it frankly the system is broken i mean if you think of how much money how much investment has gone inside of iraq and then iraq has made off of oil and energy since two thousand and three we're talking hundreds of billions you know we're talking about a lot of money and yet that doesn't trickle down to the people and this is as i say
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the irony of it all and the people see this just because you have the resources doesn't mean that that resource can be used efficiently it's a systemic problem and the government the way the state has been built in two thousand and three has been unable to respond to the basic needs of the citizens simply changing individuals here and there isn't going to change this structural problem it's an endemic problem that's becoming entrenched which is even you know of a concern for the citizens there was quite an interesting moment during the protests in basra where iraq is thought to chant anti iran slogans burning some of the photos of the top leadership of iran how was the message to see if by the iranian authority well i mean it's very clear that within iraq there are differences in divisions i mean some groups strongly supporting ron others see perhaps iran as
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the source of the problem and never that is i would say that perhaps it is the any efficiency of the only rocky government rather than outside influence that is to blame for these issues by the way of course. so it's interrupt you there we're not talking about any other place but bus which is predominantly shia which considers itself to be some sort of religiously connected with iran so that could be something quite interesting. yes and i mean in i mean we experienced that during the elections as well so just because some areas of iraq are shia doesn't necessarily mean that they are pro ukrainian in fact. which has actually gained a lot of seats in the current elections he has been quite critical of you on so nevertheless this is why i'm saying these kinds of instabilities are bad for iran at the same time i think at the end of the day the only government that can solve
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these issues is the iraqi government you want can help of course but it's then they have to solve it. also we have to remember that iraq had been battling in struggling with isis for a very long time and they were only officially defeated in december so it's only been eight months and i think we have to give more time to the iraqi government to hopefully fix things. iraq is currently run by a caretaker government as votes are being recounted following disputed election results so who are the power brokers she saw the confirmed his influence when his own bloc won may's election but failed to win. it didn't put himself forward as prime minister his well known for his nationalism and a long time opponent opponent of both iranian and u.s. influence current prime minister. he declared victory over the last year but his
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not been able to deliver on his promises of peace and stability and his influence is thought to be dwindling. mary and the party came second in the election two months ago he's known to have close ties with iran where he lived in exile for twenty years and head of the coalition of armed groups against i still try to translate this success on the battlefield into political influence finally nouri al maliki served as iraq's prime minister for ten years from two thousand and six. he is known for his strong ties with the u.s. and iran as well as his continued influence in the balance of power has been accused of corruption as well as failure to prevent the rise of isel which ultimately led to his asking as prime minister. many people seem to be saying that perhaps it's mother souther who is triggering the unrest now in iraq to advance his own political agenda what do you think about this. well
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in the demonstration. on the speaking the end of the beginning it was not was spontaneous people get outside their houses because there was no electricity there was no water so at the beginning it was normal that people actually suffered from all those errors made by the iraqi government in a way or another the most important thing is that what's happened after that is that how how one who can get benefit from all those demonstrations there were attacks then there were attacks on political parties headquarters and many governorates and it looks like that actually people did not not only blaming the lower body they are also blaming. and state the floor at the same time which means that they are already blaming the one who won and also one who has already previously have some sort of a power authority inside the iraqi government in
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a way or another and also there are also have been attacked so i show you that at the end. the pressure is on the on this care taking government on how to learn about the on the previous probably meant which is has majority from let's say seventy. belongs to a state of law to maliki and also the presents now or for the hundred and so on so you can imagine how much of this pressure actually made the progress in a way or another to talk about how can i speak to my opponents in a way to solve the problem which i think nowadays there are talking about the same of the other said ok ok guys go stop stop talking about the government please give the services for the people then we're going to talk about the governor ok and it's not a movement because at the end we need about let's say two months until we're going to see two months or maybe three months until we can see a new government a new parliament redounds many had high hopes that after the the may to two
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thousand. eighteen elections we might see an anti identity of politics in iraq now with this protest movement do you have any concerns that the identity politics of terrorism could come back in full swing more than any time before. well first of all i think it's important to sort of raise the question iraqis want change and they're asking how can we change the system and what they're realizing is that identity politics isn't the way to change the system they're also realizing that elections aren't the way to change a system because again quite frankly even though there wasn't a lecture even though every politician promised change eventually in the government formation process that's ongoing today it looks like the same leaders are going to come together they're going to compromise and they're going to split the national party as they say so what iraqis are seeing really is there's no real way to institutionally bring about change not to answer the question about identity
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politics i think it's important to kind of have a nuance here which is what you're seeing on the ground is in buses are protesting against their own leaders to stun and it's their money and for example the kurds are protesting against their own kurdish leaders so because areas like but like both sort of like salmaniya haven't seen like a cute violence for several years now because the sort of stability in terms of just security is improving they're beginning to ask more from their leaders and their leaders can no longer just gain legitimacy by using ethno sectarian discourse they're going to have to start promising things that people are expecting more so that's what we mean by sort of this kind of move away from identity politics but unfortunately the way the system is structured under the guise of inclusive a-t. means that you have to have identities so it's actually the system and elections that are reinforcing identities when that people are trying to move past that i see your point how is it any concern among the political establishment in iran that if
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the movement crosses the rule book it could lead to a new political system in iraq and iraq has had strong relationship with iran over the last few years. i mean definitely you rock is a major strategic concern for iran and i would say the most important issue for iran is the influence of saudi arabia in the united states within iraq and issues in cortez such as what we are witnessing right now actually creates a window of opportunity for countries such as saudi arabia to expand their influence in iraq and that is in fact very worrying for iran and i think that is why you're on has been very helpful towards the iraqi government in overcoming these challenges i mean we all remember there were you on was the first country to help you rock in defeating i saw never that's what we're witnessing right now is very difficult for iran to help the iraqi government just because as i mentioned
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iran is experiencing its own very severe power shortages so definitely iraq is a major strategic concern for iran but we've seen with other service saying that we need to stay away from forming a government give it give it more time to solve this political problem do the political elite a model for the. maliki feel that this could be the beginning of the end of the beginning of a new chapter in iraq well it's a new chapter if there will be a real change in the political process it's not only speaking in front of the people it's not only talking we need some sort of work we need some sort of a chain a real change inside the whole system inside the political system and most important and so the economy can system and we all know that our economical laws is depending on socialism before two thousand and three and to no it didn't change until now so
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we cannot make any progress without changing those laws making a new laws to have some sort of opening market to have some sort of of a deal with the west or with the international community that iraq is some sort of a strategic alliance a strategic economic alarm lights and so on. and so it's not only talking and the problem is that iraqis will not forgive anyone if the situation although still on this on this level of knowledge through city no water unemployment and so on and all those problems actually was it was actually covered by the presence of the irish no that is not supposed to be defeated they are all there they are all become some sort of gangs in caves and mountains and so on so we need to see actually what's going to happen ok because we all know also that the destroyed cities until now didn't leopold so and we are not also there are sleeping south of there are you going to say to the people ok ok guys you're a substitute your source with whom with the election that happened to your houses
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and homes and governorates that's the that's suppose i would like also to. talk about with. midsomer saw the world bank has been saying basically that the macro economic outlook of iraq should be good in the coming years particularly with the defeat of i sell oil now is has been in the increase for quite some time. would iraq be able to rebuild the country and so the demands of the people with the same mentality which has been prevailing for some time poor governance embezzlement of public funds and incredible corruption that we've been seeing across all the levels of the political elite yes that's a good question i mean i wouldn't call this socialism i call this kleptocracy very clearly the system the culture of kickbacks and the corruption and the system that's been unable to trickle down to the citizens continues to exist and you can continue to put money into the system you can continue to sell oil you can have oil
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at one hundred you can have on the one hundred fifty that doesn't mean that more money will go to the citizens because the system as you say is the problem and many people say oil itself is a curse and actually having so much money empowers the elite rather than convincing the convincing the elite to change the system for it to trickle down so i know the world bank and other i.m.f. and many of the international organizations aren't very concerned with the sort of system and iraq and the economic system and iraq and in many of the provinces at the local and central government level so it's really hard to say ok as i say the word reconstruction has been used in iraq since two thousand and three. very briefly please should iran be also very concerned if its top allies in iraq are facing huge problems they're seen as very unpopular among people. yes i mean i
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think it's very concerning for iran but i think it should also be a concern for other players as well from you want perspective the fall of these bureaucrats as corrupt as they may be would lead to the rise of extremist groups such as i saw and i think that can have major consequences both for iran and to the region if it happens unfortunate thank you thank you very much indeed a little she saw how we really appreciate your conversation thank you very much indeed. and thank you too for so you can see the program again and its time by visiting our website dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter one hundred is a.j. inside story for me hashem the whole team here by phone now.
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